ARM's Warren East retires from CEO post

LONDON Ė Processor intellectual property licensor ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) has announced that CEO Warren East, aged 51, has decided to retire with effect from July 1, 2013, after nearly 12 years as CEO and nineteen at the company. Simon Segars, head of ARM's U.S. operation, will take over as CEO.

The news was greated by a 3 percent drop in the ARM share price on the London Stock Exchange.

East joined ARM in 1994 and within three years was appointed to the board of directors as chief operating officer. Warren became ARMís CEO, replacing Sir Robin Saxby, in October 2001 and under his leadership ARM has become the foremost designer of semiconductor IP in the world, providing processor technology for nearly all mobile phones and many other consumer and industrial electronic devices in use today.

Simon Segars, 45, joined the board of directors in January 2005. He is currently President of ARM, and has operational responsibility for the companyís IP divisions. Simon has been with ARM since 1991 and has held several executive roles including executive vice president of engineering, when he worked on many of the early ARM processors.

"We take a very long-term view about our business, and we believe that now is the right time to bring in new leadership, to execute on the next phase of growth and to plan even further into the future," said East, in a statement. "I have worked with Simon in the senior leadership team for many years and we share a global perspective and belief in the ARM approach to partnership and collaboration; he is an excellent choice to lead ARM."

Warren East, aged 51, is moving on after 19 years at ARM and 12 as CEO.

In the same statement John Buchanan, chairman of ARM Holdings plc, said: "Warren has transformed ARM during his time as CEO. In 2001 ARM had one processor product line found mainly in mobile phones. Now ARM provides the broadest portfolio of technologies in the industry, used by more than 300 semiconductor customers in nearly 9 billion chips last year. During Warren's tenure the company has received royalties for over 40 billion ARM-based chips."

"Following an extensive review of candidates worldwide, Simonís proven technology expertise and management skills across a range of senior executive roles make him an excellent CEO candidate and highly qualified to take the company forward," Buchanan added.

Simon Segars on stage at the 2012 ARM TechCon exhibition and conference in Santa Clara, California.

I like Warren a lot. Not met him personally, but he talks good in his interviews which i had seen in youtube. I think it is a bit early to go down considering the situation that ARM is now on top of the world and growing.

@Da_caruth
It is something we have speculated upon in the past.
But right now Intel is going to be short a CEO as of May and East does not become free until July 1.
East would appear to have all the right credentials. But he did tell us in a conference call that he would like to do a bit less traveling and that he would be interested in doing something "complementary to ARM" and perhaps in the U.K.
We shall see